The UK elections? (Confusing as ever and I’m not actually allowed to vote)

MBA news? (Always good)

The UK expenses row? (A continued disgrace)

The hefty losses faced by Morgan Stanley? ($5.4bn. Ouch!)

Well, there’s certainly enough to choose from.

During the last week or so Asian investors decided not to take up more of the bottomless Greek debt. This forced the Euro Zone to put their money where the mouth is and actually commit to something. This they did on Sunday and as a consequence investors are now treating Greek debt as the best thing since sliced bread. For the time being anyway. Whether or not this will continue will probably depend on whether an essential Greek treasury bill goes through and whether Greece sends proper signs of economising where possible. An interesting side effect of this was reported in the Guardian yesterday when it reported a huge influx in Greeks purchasing expensive homes in the UK.

The UK elections, well it’s interesting to watch even if as a Dane I’m not actually allowed to vote. I’m allowed to pay my taxes, yes, but not to vote for those who will decide how to spend my taxes. The funny thing is that I’m allowed to vote for the Scottish Parliament because this is considered a local election.

On the MBA side things are hotting up again with the last stretch of courses and the MBA Consultancy project on the go. Come mid-May and after nine months of hard work the full-time MBAs will have completed all their courses. The MBAs on the International Business programme are away for their exchange in Singapore, China, France, Spain, Canada and USA. They still have a bit to go because after the exchange they will move on to their internships.

The UK expenses row continues to astound those on the side-line. After investigations a few people are now facing fraud charges through bogus mortgage applications, invoices and rent claims. At first they attempted to claim parliamentary privilege. It is an immunity against prosecution that can be claimed by those in government protecting them from actions they have to carry out as a member of a legislating body. (I don’t think one has to submit bogus expenses claims as a member of parliament, do you?) After denied this privilege they have now claimed and been granted legal aid which upsets many people but putting aside the fact that these people if they are found guilty have fiddled funds then, if they are not above the law (and they were told so) then they have the same rights as everyone else. Otherwise we undermine our own system because we have to obey the rules that we have set ourselves. Talks about means testing of legal aid are under way but until this has been implemented we cannot deny legal aid just because we are greatly affronted by these people’s actions.

If you picked up the WSJ this morning then you will have seen the story on the front page (in the Europe edition) about the losses faced by Morgan Stanley fund. The $8.8bn real estate fund may lose a substantial amount, about $5.4bn following from property investment that turned out to be, hmm, well, pretty awful. Check Anton Troianovski and Lingling Wei’s story through the link below.

And now you’ll have to excuse me ’cause I’ll be off for a few days. Nice!

Yes, it’s today that we are participating in a trial from GMAC, the GMATCH MBA and Master Virtual Fair. It’s a chance to meet school from all over the World from your living room. There’s a short break now but I’ll join the fair later so come and meet me. Ohh and please also come to our MBA Open Day next week. It’s on Tuesday 13 April and apart from meeting current students and finding answers to your questions you also have a chance to test drive the class in Corporate Strategy taught by my Director colleague Dr Brad Mackay. Read more about the event at the University of Edinburgh Business School here. I hope to see you!

You will probably know that the iPad went on sale in the US this weekend. Initial numbers seem to suggest that despite a lukewarm reception in January, Jobs and his cronies may have done it again. Gene Munster the Apple analyst of Piper Jaffray suggested that based on the evidence of the number of people queueing to get their hands on their newest gadget the estimate for 2010 would need to be adjusted. Now Mr Munster expects the estimate to be in the region of 5.5 million rather than the original estimate of 2.7 million. It is of course early days yet so let’s see whether the estimate needs to be adjusted again and in which direction. Rave reviews suggest that you can’t live without the iPad and others suggest that the apps and the iBooks are too expensive. Well, in any case, the opening weekend sales numbers are not indicative of the long run direction.

Now, I’m really curious.

I’d like to see the thing I must admit.

Wouldn’t you?

Here, it’s a bit quiet this week. We have an ultra short break before the last burst of MBA courses begin next week. It’s a time to catch up with my to-do list(s) and of course also to speak to and offer advice to the MBA IB students that are leaving for their exchanges and also to the incoming class who are getting ready to enter the MBA in September. I can see a very nice group shaping up. I’m lucky. I get to meet all these interesting people at work, every day.